Third generation mobile phone networks use CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) spread spectrum signals for communicating across the radio interface between a mobile station and a base station. These 3G networks, (and also so-called 2.5G networks), are encompassed by the International Mobile Telecommunications IMT-2000 standard (www.ituint, hereby incorporated by reference). Third generation technology uses CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) and the IMT-2000 standard contemplates three main modes of operation, W-CDMA (Wide band CDMA) direct spread FDD (Frequency Division Duplex) in Europe and Japan, CDMA-2000 multicarrier FDD for the USA, and TD-CDMA (Time Division Duplex CDMA) and TD-SCDMA (Time Division Synchronous CDMA) for China.
Collectively the radio access portion of a 3G network is referred to as UTRAN (Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network) and a network comprising UTRAN access networks is known as a UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) network. The UMTS system is the subject of standards produced by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP, 3GPP2), technical specifications for which can be found at www.3gpp.org. These standards include Technical Specifications 23.101, which describes a general UMTS architecture, and 25.101 which describes user and radio transmission and reception (FDD) versions 4.0.0 and 3.2.2 respectively of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
FIG. 1 shows a generic structure of a third generation digital mobile phone system at 10. In FIG. 1 a radio mast 12 is coupled to a base station 14 which in turn is controlled by a base station controller 16. A mobile communications device 18 is shown in two-way communication with base station 14 across a radio or air interface 20, known as a Um interface in GSM (Global Systems for Mobile Communications) networks and GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) networks and a Uu interface in CDMA2000 and W-CDMA networks. Typically at any one time a plurality of mobile devices 18 are attached to a given base station, which includes a plurality of radio transceivers to serve these devices.
Base station controller 16 is coupled, together with a plurality of other base station controllers (not shown) to a mobile switching centre (MSC) 22. A plurality of such MSCs are in turn coupled to a gateway MSC (GMSC) 24 which connects the mobile phone network to the public switched telephone network (PSTN) 26. A home location register (HLR) 28 and a visitor location register (VLR) 30 manage call routing and roaming and other systems (not shown) manage authentication, billing. An operation and maintenance centre (OMC) 29 collects the statistics from network infrastructure elements such as base stations and switches to provide network operators with a high level view of the network's performance. The OMC can be used, for example, to determine how much of the available capacity of the network or parts of the network is being used at different times of day.
The above described network infrastructure essentially manages circuit switched voice connections between a mobile communications device 18 and other mobile devices and/or PSTN 26. So-called 2.5G networks such as GPRS, and 3G networks, add packet data services to the circuit switched voice services. In broad terms a packet control unit (PCU) 32 is added to the base station controller 16 and this is connected to a packet data network such as Internet 38 by means of a hierarchical series of switches. In a GSM-based network these comprise a serving GPRS support node (SGSN) 34 and a gateway GPRS support node (GGSM) 36. It will be appreciated that both in the system of FIG. 1 and in the system described later the functionalities of elements within the network may reside on a single physical node or on separate physical nodes of the system.
Communications between the mobile device 18 and the network infrastructure generally include both data and control signals. The data may comprise digitally encoded voice data or a data modem may be employed to transparently communicate data to and from the mobile device. In a GSM-type network text and other low-bandwidth data may also be sent using the GSM Short Message Service (SMS).
In a 2.5G or 3G network mobile device 18 may provide more than a simple voice connection to another phone. For example mobile device 18 may additionally or alternatively provide access to video and/or multimedia data services, web browsing, e-mail and other data services. Logically mobile device 18 may be considered to comprise a mobile terminal (incorporating a subscriber identity module (SIM) card) with a serial connection to terminal equipment such as a data processor or personal computer. Generally once the mobile device has attached to the network it is “always on” and user data can be transferred transparently between the device and an external data network, for example by means of standard AT commands at the mobile terminal-terminal equipment interface. Where a conventional mobile phone is employed for mobile device 18 a terminal adapter, such as a GSM data card, may be needed.
In a CDMA spread spectrum communication system a baseband signal is spread by mixing it with a pseudorandom spreading sequence of a much higher bit rate (referred to as the chip rate) before modulating the rf carrier. At the receiver the baseband signal is recovered by feeding the received signal and the pseudorandom spreading sequence into a correlator and allowing one to slip past the other until a lock is obtained. Once code lock has been obtained, it is maintained by means of a code tracking loop such as an early-late tracking loop which detects when the input signal is early or late with respect to the spreading sequence and compensates for the change. Alternatively a matched filter may be employed for despreading and synchronisation.
Such a system is described as code division multiplexed as the baseband signal can only be recovered if the initial pseudorandom spreading sequence is known. A spread spectrum communication system allows many transmitters with different spreading sequences all to use the same part of the rf spectrum, a receiver “tuning” to the desired signal by selecting the appropriate spreading sequence.
FIGS. 2a and 2b show, respectively, an exemplary front end 200 and a decoder 250 for a typical spread spectrum receiver. A receiver antenna 202 is connected to an input amplifier 204, which has a second input from an IF oscillator 208 to mix the input of rf signal down to IF. The output of mixer 206 is fed to an IF band pass filter 210 and thence to an AGC (Automatic Gain Control) stage 212. The output of AGC stage 212 provides an input to two mixers 252, 254 to be mixed with quadrature signals from an oscillator 258 and a splitter 256. This generates quadrature I and Q signals 260, 262 which are digitised by analogue to digital converters 264, which also output a control signal on line 266 to control AGC stage 212 to optimise signal quantisation.
Digitised I and Q signals 268, 270 from ADCs 264 are fed to Nyquist filters 272, 274 and thence to matched filters 276, 278, which are configured to provide a maximum output when a signal with the desired pseudorandom spreading sequence is received. The matched filter outputs feed bit synchronisation circuitry 280 which provides an error signal 286 to a delay locked loop 288 which generates sample clocks 290 to ADCs 266. Circuitry 280 also provides a second output 282 to a demodulator 284 for demodulating received data. Typically, as shown in FIG. 2, the rf signal is digitised at IF although it may be digitised at other points, for example after input amplifier 204.
In a 3G mobile phone system the baseband data is spread using a spreading or channelisation code using an Orthogonal Variable Spreading Factor (OVSF) technique. The OVSF codes allow the spreading factor to be changed whilst maintaining orthogonality between codes of different lengths. To increase the number of simultaneous users of the system the data is further spread by a scrambling code such as a Gold code. The scrambling code does not change the signal bandwidth but allows signals to or from different users to be distinguished from one another, again, because the spreading codes are substantially mutually orthogonal. The scrambling is used on top of the channelisation spreading, that is a signal at the chip rate following OVSF spreading is multiplied by the scrambling code to produce a scrambled code at the same chip rate. The chip rate is thus determined by the channelisation code and, in this system, is unaffected by the subsequent scrambling. Thus the symbol rate for a given chip rate is likewise unaffected by the scrambling.
Different spreading factors and scrambling code links are generally employed for the down link from the base station to the mobile station and for the up link from the mobile station to the base station. Typically the channelisation codes have a length of between 4 chips and 256 chips or, equivalently, a spreading factor of between 4 and 256 (although other spreading factors may be employed). The up link and down link radio (data channel) frames generally last 10 ms, corresponding to a scrambling code length of 38400 chips although shorter frames, for example of 256 chips, are sometimes employed on the up link. A typical chip rate is 3.84 M chips/sec (Mcps), which determines the maximum bit rate for a channel—for example with a spreading factor of 16, that is 16 chips per symbol, this gives a data rate of 240 Kbps. It will be recognised that the foregoing figures are provided merely for the purposes of illustration. Where higher bit rate communications with a mobile station are required more than one such channel may be employed to create a so-called multicode transmission. In a multicode transmission a plurality of data channels are used, effectively in parallel, to increase the overall rate of data transmission to or from a mobile station. Generally the multicode data channels have the same scrambling code but different channelisation codes, albeit preferably with the same spreading factor.
In a 3G mobile phone system there are generally a number of different channels some dedicated to particular users and some common to groups of users such as all the users within a given cell or sector. Traffic is carried on a Dedicated Physical Control Channel (DPCH), or on a plurality of such channels in the case of a multicode transmission, as described above. The common channels generally transport signalling and control information and may also be utilised for the physical layer of the system's radio link. Thus a Common Pilot Channel (CPICH) is provided comprising an unmodulated code channel scrambled with a cell-specific scrambling code to allow channel estimation and equalisation at the mobile station receiver. Similarly a Sychnronisation Channel (SCH) is provided for use by the mobile station to locate network cells. A primary SCH channel is unmodulated and is transmitted using the same channelisation spreading sequence in each cell and does not employ a cell-specific scrambling code. A similar secondary SCH channel is also provided, but with a limited number of spreading sequences. Primary and Secondary Common Control Physical Channel (PCCPCH, SCCPCH) having known channelisation and spreading codes are also provided to carry control information. The foregoing signalling channels (CPICH, SCH and CCPCH) must generally be decoded by all the mobile stations and thus the spreading codes (channelisation codes and where appropriate, scrambling code) will generally be known by the mobile station, for example because the known codes for a network have been stored in the user-end equipment. Here the references to channels are generally references to physical channels and one or more network transport channels may be mapped to such a physical channel. In the context of 3G mobile phone networks the mobile station or mobile device is often referred to as a terminal and in this specification no distinction is drawn between these general terms.
One advantage of spread spectrum systems is that they are relatively insensitive to multipath fading. Multipath fading arises when a signal from a transmitter to a receiver takes two or more different paths and hence two or more versions of the signals arrive at the receiver at different times and interfere with one another. This typically produces a comb-like frequency response and, when a wide band signal is received over a multipath channel, the multiple delays give the multiple components of the received signal the appearance of tines of a rake. The number and position of multipath channels generally changes over time, particularly when the transmitter or receiver is moving. As the skilled person will understand, a correlator in a spread spectrum receiver will tend to lock onto one of the multipath components, normally the direct signal which is the strongest. However a plurality of correlators may be provided to allow the spread spectrum receiver to lock onto a corresponding plurality of separate multipath components of the received signal. Such a spread spectrum receiver is known as a rake receiver and the elements of the receiver comprising the correlators are often referred to as “fingers” of the rake receiver. The separate outputs from each finger of the rake receiver are combined to provide an improved signal to noise ratio (or bit error rate) generally either by weighting each output equally or by estimating weights which maximise the signal to noise ratio of the combined output. This latter technique is known as Maximal Ratio Combining (MRC).
FIG. 3 shows the main components of a typical rake receiver 300. A bank of correlators 302 comprises, in this example, three correlators 302, 302 and 302 each of which receives a CDMA signal from input 304. The correlators are known as the fingers of the rake; in the illustrated example the rake has three fingers. The CDMA signal may be at baseband or at IF (Intermediate Frequency). Each correlator locks to a separate multipath component which is delayed by at least one chip with respect to the other multipath components. More or fewer correlators can be provided according to a quality-cost/complexity trade off. The outputs of all the correlators go to a combiner 306 such as an MRC combiner, which adds the outputs in a weighted sum, generally giving greater weight to the stronger signals. The weighting may be determined based upon signal strength before or after correlation, according to conventional algorithms. The combined signal is then fed to a discriminator 308 which makes a decision as to whether a bit is a 1 or a 0 and provides a baseband output. The discriminator may include additional filtering, integration or other processing. The rake receiver 300 may be implemented in either hardware or software or a mixture of both.
Referring now to FIG. 4, this shows in more detail an example of W-CDMA rake receiver 400 according to the prior art. The receiver 400 has an antenna 402 to receive the spread spectrum signal for the DPCH (Dedicated Physical Data Channel), PCCPCH, and CPICH channels. The signal received by antenna 402 is input to a down converter 404 which down converts the signal to either IF (Intermediate Frequency) or base band for despreading. Typically at this point the signal will be digitised by an analogue-to-digital converter for processing in the digital domain by either dedicated or programmable digital signal processors. To preserve both magnitude and phase information the signal normally comprises I and Q channels although for simplicity these are not shown in FIG. 4. In this receiver, and generally in the receiver's described below, the signal processing in either the analogue or the digital domain or in both domains may be employed. However since normally much of the processing is carried out digitally the functional element drawn as blocks in FIG. 4 will generally be implemented by appropriate software or, where specialised integrated circuits are available for some of the functions, by appropriately programming registers in these integrated circuits to configure their architectural and/or functionality for performing the required functions.
Referring again to FIG. 4, the receiver 400 comprises 3 rake fingers 406, 408 and 410 each having an output to rake combiner 412 which provides a combined demodulated signal output 414 for further processing in the mobile terminal. The main elements of each rake finger correspond and, for simplicity, only the elements of rake finger 406 are shown.
A code tracker 416 is coupled to the input of rake finger 406 to track the spread spectrum codes for despreading. Conventional means such as a matched filter or an early-late tracking loop may be employed for code tracker 416 and since the DPCH, PCCPCH and CPICH channels are generally synchronised the code tracker 416 need only log on to one of these signals but normally CPICH because this generally has a relatively high signal level. The output of the code tracker 416 controls code generators for PCCPCH 418, CPICH 420, and DPCH 422 which generate spreading codes for cross-correlation with their corresponding channel signals to despread the spread spectrum signals. Thus three despreaders 424, 426, 428 are provided, each coupled to the rake finger input, and each receiving an output from one of the code generators 418 420, 422 to despread the appropriate signal (both channelisation and scrambling codes). As the skilled person would appreciate these despreaders will generally comprise a cross-correlator such as a multiplier and summer.
The CPICH pilot signal is unmodulated so that when it is despread the result is a signal with a magnitude and phase corresponding to the attenuation and phase shift of the multipath channel through which the CPICH signal locked onto by the finger of the rake receiver has been transmitted. This signal thus comprises a channel estimate for the CPICH channel, in particular for the multipath component of this channel the rake finger has despread. The estimate may be used without further processing but, preferably the estimate is averaged over time, over one or more symbol intervals, to reduce noise on the estimate and increase its accuracy. This function is performed by channel estimate 430. It will be appreciated although averaging over a long period will reduce the level of noise, this will also reduce the ability of the receiver to respond quickly to changing channel conditions such as are encountered when, for example, the receiver is operating in a terminal in a car on a motorway.
The channel estimate is conjugated to invert the phase and if necessary normalised so that zero attenuation corresponds to a magnitude of unity, and in this form the conjugated signal can simply be used to multiply another received signal to apply or compensate for the channel estimate. Thus multipliers 432 and 434 apply the channel estimate from channel estimate block 430 to the broadcast control channel PCCPCH and to the desired data channel DPCH respectively. The desired data channels are then combined by rake combiner 412 in any conventional fashion and the broadcast channel outputs from each finger, such as broadcast channel output 436 from rake finger 406, are also combined in a second rake combiner (not shown in FIG. 4) to output a demodulated PCCPCH control channel signal.
To perform initial synchronisation in a W-CDMA mobile telecommunications system a matched filter is used to identify the timing offset of a known synchronisation sequence. This matched filter can be efficiently implemented using a Golay correlator 500 as shown in FIG. 5. The structure and operation of such a Golay correlator is described in more detail in 3GPP technical document Tdoc TSGR1#4(99)373 (TSGRAN WG1 Meeting #4 Yokohama Japan, 18-20, Apr. 1999) and in particular-in sections 2.0 to 2.3, which are hereby incorporated by reference.
The Golay correlator of FIG. 5 provides an efficient matched filter for correlating to primary and secondary synchronisation code words based upon Golay sequences and is sometimes called an Efficient Golay Correlator. The filter 500 comprises a plurality of delay lines 502a-502h each with Dn memory elements to provide an n unit delay, typically an n-clock cycle delay. The correlator further comprises a plurality of adders 504 and substractors 506 and provides an output signal on line 508. Such a Golay correlator may be implemented in either hardware or software.
As previously described an rf front end provides incoming data comprising I and Q samples, each generally comprising a plurality of bits. In one common configuration 6 bits are used for each of I and Q, to provide 12 bit wide (complex-valued) data samples. These data samples are applied to an input 510 of Golay correlator 500. As these data traverse the filter the data becomes wider because of the effects of the addition and subtraction operations, as will be understood by those skilled in the art.
One of the main contributions to the power consumption of such a Golay correlator arises from the process of shifting large numbers of bits through each of the many delay lines 502. It is important in mobile communications systems to reduce the power consumption where practicable, particularly at the terminal end as this will generally be battery powered. Background information on power reduction can be found in Garrett D and Stanm, “Power Reduction Techniques for a Spread Spectrum based Correlator”, Proc Int Symp Low Power Electronics and Design, 1997 available from the ACM Digital Library (http://portal.acm.org/portal.cfm). There remains, however, a need for improved techniques, particularly for 3G mobile communications systems, more particularly for 3G mobile phones and terminals.